With that said...with the talent level they have everybody expected the players to play 30 minutes max and rest after 70 games for the post season. Nobody in their wildest dreams (or nightmares) were expecting 40+ minutes for Kobe and an almost playoff spot. Otherwise I would have taken them to a psychiatrist.

"It is not how big you are, it is how big you play""Basketball doesn't build character. It reveals it""Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals"

It really is amazing that this team has even partially stayed afloat. Many people deminish all the injuries but damn the team that was built to make a CHampionship run has been actually assembled ONCE.

I don't always bring down the hammer but when I do it is usually to a troll! Stay TROLL FREE my freinds!

Hard to win games consistently when main players are in and out of the line up throughout the year. We haven't looked great but it is probably no coincidence that we have won more games recently than earlier because of the fact that the line up has been the same since Pau/Hill are out. Beginning of year we lost Hill, then consistently having Nash/Howard/Gasol miss sporadically.

Even we had been fully healthy we aren't a top team. Speed and athleticism is missing as well as floor balance. It's not a mistake that our most consistent ball has been with Pau out. Clark brings hustle and dirty work without the need counting touches or shots.... Exactly what we need more of and if it weren't for an injury we would have never known we had a player like that.

Also I think it's a little bit of a pipe dream to think that a team with as much mileage as ours has on it would be injury free. Injuries come with age and minutes....

"If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost." Winston Churchill

“The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present - and is gravely to be regarded."Dwight Eisenhower

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it"Thomas Sowell

Rooscooter wrote:Even we had been fully healthy we aren't a top team. Speed and athleticism is missing as well as floor balance. It's not a mistake that our most consistent ball has been with Pau out. Clark brings hustle and dirty work without the need counting touches or shots.... Exactly what we need more of and if it weren't for an injury we would have never known we had a player like that.

Also I think it's a little bit of a pipe dream to think that a team with as much mileage as ours has on it would be injury free. Injuries come with age and minutes....

We have already gone back and forth over the "top team" thing so I won't beat that horse anymore.

However, can you really call it "pipe" to thing we wouldn't sustain season ending injuries to key players, multi-month injuries to key players and too not have the team together for more than ONE game? I don't think even in our worst dreams would we imagine that much pain to one team.

I don't always bring down the hammer but when I do it is usually to a troll! Stay TROLL FREE my freinds!

Rooscooter wrote:Even we had been fully healthy we aren't a top team. Speed and athleticism is missing as well as floor balance. It's not a mistake that our most consistent ball has been with Pau out. Clark brings hustle and dirty work without the need counting touches or shots.... Exactly what we need more of and if it weren't for an injury we would have never known we had a player like that.

Also I think it's a little bit of a pipe dream to think that a team with as much mileage as ours has on it would be injury free. Injuries come with age and minutes....

We have already gone back and forth over the "top team" thing so I won't beat that horse anymore.

However, can you really call it "pipe" to thing we wouldn't sustain season ending injuries to key players, multi-month injuries to key players and too not have the team together for more than ONE game? I don't think even in our worst dreams would we imagine that much pain to one team.

A team full of old veterans that have played deep into the playoffs each year can be expected to be fully healthy for an entire season? Umm... OK. Pau has been playing pretty much year round since 2004 in competitive basketball. He's probably logged nearly as many "game minutes" as Kobe overall and surely more in that time frame.

If you look at the other "Older teams" around like Boston and SA you'll see that our old team has had a few injuries it can't overcome yet SA has one of the big 3 on the sideline for significant time every season over the last 5 and somehow they still finish in the top 2 or 3..... They have depth and balance and actually plan for playing older players.....

Nash and Pau can't defend their way out of a wet paper sack any longer. Pau's drop-off extends back 3 seasons .... or way longer than his current injuries. You just can't keep projecting these guys best 4 or 5 seasons as the norm any longer. They are not those players now. In fact Kobe and Howard aren't going to ever be the players they have been in the past. This isn't a video game where the player never ages, slows down or gets injured. Go back 5 years and these 4 were an All Star team..... this version, even fully healthy is a shell of that. Age has a real effect and it along with the lack of thought in putting a balanced team on the floor is our issue not injuries which are part of the game.

You always seem to focus on the Officiating and injuries..... both things outside of the control of our players. Chance is something in life that is not predictable..... that's why it's called chance. Focusing on those things leaves one embittered IMO and with the conclusion that someone else is controlling the destiny of the team. I refuse to think that way in anything I do.... including follow a NBA team.

I'm not in the camp that injuries are our main problem..... and you're right; we've been down this road before. You think we're the top team in the West healthy and I don't.... let's leave it there.

"If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost." Winston Churchill

“The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present - and is gravely to be regarded."Dwight Eisenhower

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it"Thomas Sowell

I think nearly all of us said before the season began that our biggest concern was injury and you cannot get around the fact that we've been snake bit in that regard. And it's not all because of age. Blake out 37 games with an abdominal strain? Jordan Hill out 2/3 of the season on a freak injury? Nash out for 25 games on a freak foot injury? Pau out a quarter of the season with Plantar Fasciitis? None of those injuries are age related. They're just horrible luck.

Just read Gary Vitti's article this morning. He's never seen anything like this in all his years here.

That said, there's no excuse for some of the ridiculous losses and lack of effort we've seen at times this year. They've laid some inexcusable eggs.

I don't have a problem with this team's roster with the exception of backup PG and SF. I thought Ebanks would get burn this year but obviously he was a bust.

All that said, they are going to need to get younger and more athletic next year as well as get more solvent financially. We've been over that ad nauseam, but of course it means moving Pau in the offseason.

While they don't look like champions right now, I haven't given up on this season just yet. I think they have the roster to be one of the top teams in the league when healthy (top 3-5 IMO), but they are going to have to prove it.

The past few games we have taken several steps backwards and I still think it points to Earl Clark not being 100%.

^^We've had injuries but I think age and milage is a factor in both Blake's and Pau's injuries. This two years in a row for the abdominal injury for Blake. This is what happens to older players.

I'm still not sure how anyone can expect to field a team as old as ours and not expect key injuries. It just isn't realistic.

If we had this group fully healthy we'd still be hard pressed to be more than 5 to 10 games above .500 IMO. The speed advantage teams have on us on a nightly basis is so evident only the blind can't see it. Our problems this season are not in scoring the ball.... rather stopping the opposing team from scoring. Pau and Nash are part of our biggest issues in that regard.

It's telling that when Pau goes out we start playing consistent basketball.

The history of Sports is littered with "Super teams" that fail miserably. I think we're looking at another chapter in that myself. If you guys want to blame it all on injuries then I guess you will be silent in the trade and FA discussions this summer because we're the top team when healthy..... right?

Balance, team speed and depth are our issues. Teams like San Antonio and Boston seem to find ways to keep playing when they are "snake bit"..... SA has a significant injury every year it seems and still comes through it just fine.

Blaming injuries is cover for some really petty things that have gone on with these "Stars" this season. Walking around the locker room with a score sheet yappin' to the media and your "teammates" about shot attempts is injury related? Several players going to the media talking about shots is injury related? Internal squabbling over coaches and philosophy is injury related? There are quite a few reasons this season has sucked.... injuries are a part of it but again, IMO not the overriding reason for it.

If the front office believes that this group needs another chance we will see similar success next year IMO... healthy or not. This team is not built for the modern game's tempo and we need to adjust the player mix to enhance Howard's few but amazing abilities. Nash and Pau don't fit that description IMO....

"If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost." Winston Churchill

“The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present - and is gravely to be regarded."Dwight Eisenhower

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it"Thomas Sowell

SAS has usually 1 significant injury at time. They are able to play with most of their core throughout the year. The Lakers lost starting PG, PF/C, Backup C, PF, PG and has the starting C in recovery. That is more than "old age" hitting us. Again, I understand your view Roos but the petty things work out with being able gel. Even the young guns in Miami had to actually play together to gel, work on chemistry and get it down.

In any case, I have no desire to turn this into some heated argument which seems to be the path so I'll gracefully bowout and leave it to the rest of you to debate.

I don't always bring down the hammer but when I do it is usually to a troll! Stay TROLL FREE my freinds!

^^ I have no desire to go anywhere with this either. I just stated my opinion and defended it.

The "media blitz" with this recently is interesting as well. it smacks of a little "cover" for some not so good decisions.

Injuries are a part of it for sure but I just don't think we can kid ourselves into thinking that this a championship team barring injury. That ignores way to many other substantive issues surrounding this squad to be a sole excuse.

"If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost." Winston Churchill

“The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present - and is gravely to be regarded."Dwight Eisenhower

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it"Thomas Sowell